"Learning from the Germans: Race and the Memory of Evil," by Susan Neiman.
"I began life as a white girl in the segregated South, and I'm likely to end it as a Jewish woman in Berlin," Neiman writes in the prologue. If you're white and have Southern roots, are Jewish, are Black, are interested in the aftermath of WWII in Germany--just everybody, read this book. The author examines how a country, like Germany after the Nazis, and like the U.S. after slavery, can come to terms with its historical wrongdoing. If nothing else, read pages 84-86 where she summarizes "crucial facets of any successful attempt to work off a nation's criminal past
1."The nation must achieve a coherent and widely accepted national narrative. Here language is front and center. Was the Civil War about slavery or states' rights?..."
2."Narratives start with words and are reinforced by symbols, and many symbols involve remembering the dead. Which heroes do we valorize, which victims do we mourn?..."
3."Narratives are transported through education. What are children taught to remember, and what are they meant to forget?..."
4. "Words are even more powerful when set to music. So can we sing 'Dixie'? What about the German national anthem? It gives most foreigners a chill, for they cannot help thinking of 'Deutschland uber alles.'...
5. "What about things that are less symbolic: hard, cold things like prison cells and cash? Are perpetrators brought to justice and placed behind bars? Is restitution made to victims of injustice?..."
I can't do justice to this book, because it's so good and I'm so lazy. Read other reviews, and read this book. I'm so lazy I almost forgot to add that I learned about "Learning from..." through a DU video--thanks, DUers!
